Instagram blocks 'offensive' eggplant emoji hashtag

Instagram now lets you search for photos with emoji haghtags -- but not if you're looking for offensive eggplant images.

Instagram now lets you search for photos with emojis. Well, unless you're looking for that naughty, naughty eggplant.

The purple fruit, known for its delicious taste (particularly after being deep-fried and smothered with cheese and tomato sauce), is about as offensive as a honeydew melon. But Instagram has banned the eggplant emoji from its search algorithm, claiming that it is too often used to tag lewd photos.

Kids today, right?

The eggplant emoji, along with the peach and banana, belong to the Rorschach test group of emoticons often associated with various parts of the human anatomy. But you can still search for photos and videos tagged with with peach and banana emoji hashtags, in addition to hashtags with the gun, knife, bomb, bloody syringe, pill and poop emojis.

A spokesman for Instagram said the eggplant emoji was made unsearchable because it was "consistently associated" with photos or videos that violate the social network's community standards.

You can't search for the eggplant on Instagram.

Instagram recently clarified its stance on nudity: Images that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks are banned. So are photos of female breasts, if they include the nipple.